Why Was There No Lady Stoneheart in the Game of Thrones Season 4 Finale? Director Explains

Readers of A Song of Ice and Fire were likely disappointed that Lady Stoneheart was missing from the Season 4 finale of Game of Thrones, “The Children,” since she was featured in the epilogue of A Storm of Swords, the book Season 4 was largely based on. We now have a clue as to why she was omitted, according to the episode’s director, Alex Graves.

Warning! This article contains spoilers from the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, click away now if you don’t want to know!

In the books, Lady Stoneheart is the vengeful, reanimated corpse of Cat Stark. She is brought back to life by Beric Dondarrion and the Brotherhood without Banners, and leads the group in executing anyone associated with the Freys, Lannisters, or Boltons, i.e., anyone who could be linked to the Red Wedding. She offers book readers a bit of revenge for the RW, and we can’t fathom why the show would miss out on that chance to offer traumatized show fans that same satisfaction. Here’s the reasoning Graves gives Entertainment Weekly:

To bring back Michelle Fairley (Cat Stark), one of the greatest actresses around, to be a zombie for a little while — and just kill people? It is really sort of, what are we doing with that? How does it play into the whole story in a way that we’re really going to like? It just didn’t end up being a part of what was going to happen this season. And finally one [more] reason: In case you didn’t notice, a lot happens this season … To add that in is something they opted out of. But what’s funny is that it was never going to be in the season, yet it took off on the Internet like it was going to happen.

It sounds like, at least according to Graves, Lady Stoneheart is not important to the plot of the show. This seems contradictory to the books, since it looks like she will play a big role in potentially ending the arc of either Jaime Lannister or Brienne, or perhaps both. Also, the show already introduced Beric Dondarrion’s resurrection, so why do that if they’re not going to introduce Stoneheart? Beric’s miracle is foreshadowing LSH, and he is not seen after she is introduced.

Knowing this, is there any chance we’ll get LSH in Season 5? “As somebody who’s worked deep inside the show, begged to have an answer and wants more than anybody, I have no idea,” Graves tells EW. “[Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] won’t tell me. They’re very good at being secretive.”

So it at least seems like there’s a glimmer of hope we’ll get some Stoneheart in Season 5. We'd better!